{"id":48114,"date":"2024-10-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d35e2eea-d906-40a4-a8ae-07b1c61c7cd4"},"modified":"2024-10-10T12:07:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T10:07:16","slug":"the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The music spoke directly to my loneliness\u2019 \u2013 how Bruckner helped me through a mental health crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 10 October 2024 at 09:00 AM<\/p>

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Read on to discover why Bruckner’s works are either loved or hated by listeners…<\/strong> and how the music of this deeply troubled composer helped the author through a mental health crisis<\/strong><\/p>

Bruckner… a deeply divisive composer<\/h2>
There\u2019s a conversation I\u2019ve had regularly, with slight variations, throughout my career. It runs something like this:<\/p>
Other person: \u2018You like Bruckner<\/a><\/strong>, don\u2019t you?\u2019Me: \u2018Yes.\u2019Other: \u2018I can\u2019t stand him \u2013 those interminable\/heavy\/boring symphonies\u2026\u2019Me: \u2018What about the choral music: the masses and the motets?\u2019Other: \u2018Oh, those are rather beautiful. I like those.\u2019Me: \u2018Then it isn\u2019t Bruckner you don\u2019t like, just one aspect of him.\u2019Other: \u2018Well, I suppose so\u2026\u2019<\/p>
Strange, isn\u2019t it? I can honestly say that I\u2019ve only ever met one person who said he hated Bruckner\u2019s choral music, and that seemed to me more for reasons of anti-religious prejudice than because he disliked the sound of it. And let\u2019s stress one thing right now: despite Bruckner\u2019s shift in emphasis towards symphonies later in his career, the church music is just as significant an aspect of this intensely devout composer\u2019s output as his purely orchestral works.\u00a0<\/p>
Ranked: the monumental, deeply spiritual symphonies of Anton Bruckner<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Bruckner… an intensely devout character<\/h2>
The E\u00a0minor Mass, for eight-part chorus and 15-part wind band, is one of the most breathtakingly original religious works written in the 19th century. Like two of his most striking motets, Os Justi <\/em>and Pange Lingua,<\/em> it grew partly out of Bruckner\u2019s involvement with the Cecilian Movement, a Roman Catholic society which espoused a \u2018back to basics\u2019\u00a0attitude to church music: stress on its function within the liturgy and a determination to reconnect with purer stylistic elements found, allegedly, in Baroque<\/a><\/strong> and Renaissance<\/a><\/strong> music \u2013 Palestrina<\/a><\/strong>, in particular, was a name that was often cited.\u00a0<\/p>
The 19th century saw several attempts to get away from what the poet-philosopher Friedrich Schiller called \u2018sentimental\u2019 modern thinking and re-engage with something that had been felt to be lost. In the UK, we had the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in art and the Gothic Revival in architecture. What is extraordinary about Bruckner\u2019s Cecilian works, though, is that there\u2019s absolutely nothing \u2018neo-\u2019 about them. They don\u2019t sound like the work of a man nostalgically yearning for some notional lost Eden. Beautifully contrived counterpoint, Palestrina-like in its elegance and ecstatic purity, can draw in harmonies from the worlds of Schubert<\/a><\/strong> or Wagner<\/a><\/strong> without a hint of incongruity or artifice.<\/p>
Five essential works by Bruckner<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>
Solace in church buildings…<\/h3>
It makes sense when you know about Bruckner\u2019s life. The composer who, from early teens, found sanctuary and solace in some of the most beautiful gothic and Baroque church buildings in Austria seems to have imbibed something of their spirit, even their numerical proportions, in his own thinking and feeling. The Schubert authority Richard Capell wrote that Bruckner arrived at his musical forms \u2018by instinct, if not by design\u2019, but the fact is that Bruckner was one of the most design-conscious composers in the whole of the 19th century. It\u2019s one of the reasons why his church works, even when they express the anguish of penitence or tremors of doubt \u2013 take, for instance, the wonderful Christus factus est <\/em>\u2013 still feel marvellously \u2018contained\u2019. Troubled we may be, but we are in a \u2018safe space\u2019, as the chapel of the monastery of St Florian or Vienna\u2019s St Stephen\u2019s Cathedral were for Bruckner.\u00a0<\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge conducted by Stephen Cleobury perform Bruckner’s <em>Christus cactus est<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bruckner… ‘tormented by his obsessions’<\/h2><p>That Bruckner needed those safe spaces is clear from the last Mass, in F minor, for\u00a0chorus and full orchestra. Bruckner began it after one of the worst mental crises of his life \u2013 and that\u2019s saying a great deal. His friend from his earlier Linz days, the organist Karl Waldeck, remembered Bruckner having to be restrained from trying to count the leaves on a tree, and later begging him to stay with him late at night, to stop him being \u2018tormented by his obsessions\u2019. <\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/science-of-music\/music-and-mental-health\">Music and mental health: what scientists have revealed about the connections between them<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>Waldeck remembered how the theme for the Mass\u2019s poignant Kyrie (\u2018Lord have mercy\u2019) came to Bruckner during one of those black nocturnal vigils, but also how composing the Mass helped him find his way back to sanity. The result is a work as great as the E minor Mass, but this time more 19th century in its personal expressive urgency. A performance in 1893 so moved Bruckner\u2019s arch-rival <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/johannes-brahms\">Brahms<\/a><\/strong> that he leapt to his feet at the end and applauded enthusiastically, later urging a conductor friend to take it on.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The symphonies… confusing and frustrating, or wondrously healing?<\/h2><p>But mention of Brahms, the symphonic ideal for many in the 19th century, brings us back to Bruckner the symphonist. At this point, some readers may remember how Brahms tartly condemned Bruckner\u2019s \u2018symphonic boa constrictors\u2019. I\u2019ve mentioned how carefully Bruckner planned and adjusted his structures, so why do so people find them formally confusing or frustrating? <\/p><p>\u2018People want me to compose differently,\u2019 Bruckner remarked at a time when musical Vienna was busily ignoring or mocking him, \u2018but I dare not.\u2019 There was something unique he felt he had to communicate, something not everyone gets, but which for others \u2013 myself very much included \u2013 inspires not only love, but also wonder and gratitude.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/music-depression\">Depression and mental illness can inspire extraordinary works of art. Just ask these four great composers<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Bruckner helped me through a mental health crisis<\/h2><p>And I do mean gratitude. I remember horribly well the summer of 1976. During my third year at university, I\u2019d experienced my first manic episode. After two weeks in hospital I was sent home for a long rest. The mania was frightening enough, but the depression that followed was torture, haunted by hideous waking dreams. For a while, reading was too difficult, but I could listen to music, so long as it was sufficiently consoling or calming. But then, I listened to Bruckner\u2019s Eighth Symphony, and I found myself playing it over and over again.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/best-classical-music-to-boost-your-mental-health\">Best classical music to boost your mental health<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>This may surprise a few readers, as the Eighth contains some of the darkest, most troubled music Bruckner ever composed. The fearfully probing first movement culminates in a vision Bruckner aptly called the \u2018Annunciation of Death\u2019, followed by the desolate, slowly ebbing coda that he compared to a clock ticking in the room of a dying man. <\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Karajan Bruckner Symphony No. 8 - adagio (opening)\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C4zeXrFOPvA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Herbert von Karajan conducts the opening of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Th<em>e Adagio <\/em>slow movement contains music of heart-rending longing and loneliness, perhaps the most personal confession of this lifelong bachelor, constantly prone to bizarre infatuations with much younger women and girls \u2013 apparently never consummated. The<em> Adagio<\/em>\u2019s nobly aspiring <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/cello\">cello<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/viola-how-to-play-tune-clean-beginners\">viola<\/a><\/strong> and solo <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/instruments\/violin-history\">violin<\/a><\/strong> theme seemed to speak directly to my loneliness, but in a way that felt strangely affirming. As a Russian musician I met years later put it, \u2018There\u2019s something about hearing your most painful emotions transformed into something beautiful\u2026\u2019<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Bruckner’s symphonic structures drive people mad<\/h2><p>But there was something else \u2013 something rooted in those very formal principles that cause such problems for Bruckner-sceptics. The Eighth Symphony\u2019s first movement is actually one of the most seamless, structurally self-explanatory arguments Bruckner ever created. But as that long<em> Adagio<\/em> approaches its thrilling, cymbal-crowned climax, Bruckner starts doing something which drives some people mad.\u00a0<\/p><p>He\u2019ll build up a beautifully engineered long <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/musical-terms\/what-is-a-crescendo\">crescendo<\/a><\/strong> then, just as we seem to be reaching the moment when the wave ought to break spectacularly, he stops \u2026 pauses \u2026 then seems to start somewhere else. The themes may be recognisable, but it\u2019s as though we\u2019ve suddenly side-stepped into a parallel universe. In the long approach to the <em>Adagio<\/em>\u2019s climax this happens three times \u2013 which means that, for some, when we do get to that truly visionary moment, it just doesn\u2019t work. Perplexity and irritation have spoilt the Big Reveal.<\/p><p>If that is how you feel, then you really do have my sympathy. There have been times when I\u2019ve been getting to know some of the symphonies when I\u2019ve felt the same. In fact, I\u2019m not even sure that, despite his notorious frequent revisions, Bruckner ever got the <em>Finale<\/em> of the Fourth Symphony right, let alone any of the movements \u2013 barring the <em>Scherzo<\/em> \u2013 in the Third. In the wrong kind of performance, the huge first movement of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/best-recordings-bruckners-symphony-no9\">Ninth Symphony<\/a><\/strong> can leave the listener structurally punch drunk with its sudden cut-offs, reversals, switches in theme, tempo and character.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cathedrals in sound<\/h2><p>Bruckner\u2019s symphonies have been famously described as \u2018cathedrals in sound\u2019, but in this case the cathedral seems to have been designed by a kind of deranged MC Escher. It is as though you\u2019re strolling up the spacious nave one moment, candle-lit altar clearly in view, only to find yourself suddenly peering down vertiginously from the top of the rood screen the next. What is Bruckner doing? Does he actually have any idea what he\u2019s doing?\u00a0<\/p><p>My answer to that, it won\u2019t surprise you to learn, is an emphatic \u2018yes\u2019. But it\u2019s something so extraordinary that I\u2019m having difficulty thinking of direct parallels in the works of any other composers. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/joseph-haydn\">Haydn<\/a><\/strong>, and more spectacularly <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/ludwig-van-beethoven\">Beethoven<\/a><\/strong>, can set up tension in their symphonic works, tease us with false, thwarted resolutions, then thrillingly provide the rabbit-out-of-the-hat release at the very end. Schubert can do something similar, but on a more expansive scale, often with pauses for\u00a0breath instead of the expected transition into something new \u2013 a device which led to George Bernard Shaw dismissing him as \u2018brainless\u2019. For those who buy into his thinking, Wagner can create huge expectations which may only be fulfilled after several hours waiting \u2013 think of the Liebestod in <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/guide-wagners-tristan-und-isolde\">Tristan und Isolde<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, all the more overwhelming after three acts of exquisitely agonising foreplay.<\/p><h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A slower metabolic rate…<\/h3><p>No question, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner are important influences on Bruckner\u2019s symphonic thinking. But firstly \u2013 with the exception of Wagner \u2013 he slows them down. The metabolic rate is different, and even when the music seems animated on the surface, the background pulse is slower, like the movement of an ocean liner. There are moments when this background pulse stands revealed, and if we can identify with it, accept it, then what Bruckner does superficially becomes less frustrating because we know not to be fooled into false expectations. As composer Robert Simpson put it, Bruckner doesn\u2019t simply demand patience, he actually expresses it. This is harder to grasp at first because \u2013 unless the performance is of the regrettable kind which monumentalises everything \u2013 we can also hear his anxiety, his yearning, his sadness and terrifying instability.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/beethoven-symphonies-best-recordings\">The best recording of each Beethoven symphony to add to your collection<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bruckner… ‘explains everything’<\/h2><p>I can recall taking a Bruckner-sceptic friend to a performance of the Fourth Symphony while at university. I well remember the look of delighted surprise he gave me about five minutes into the first movement \u2013 he was actually enjoying it! But what stayed with me most of all was his comment about the slow movement, that strange nocturnal procession through a vast forestscape which at times seems to come to a complete standstill. He pointed to a passage, just after the brassy climax, where sombre string harmonies rise slowly above quietly throbbing timpani. \u2018That passage\u2019, he said, eyes burning, \u2018explains everything!\u2019\u00a0<\/p><p>In such moments \u2013 and the final crescendo of the Eighth Symphony is perhaps the greatest of all \u2013 the threads left hanging in the air earlier on are suddenly drawn together, and the whole journey makes sense. It reminds me of the ending of John Milton\u2019s 1671 drama<em> Samson Agonistes:<\/em> \u2018All is best, though we oft doubt, What th\u2019 unsearchable dispose Of highest wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, But unexpectedly returns And to his faithful Champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously\u2019.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/20-greatest-symphonies-all-time\">Ranked: classical music’s greatest symphonies… and the landmark recordings to add to your collection<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><p>For Bruckner, that \u2018highest wisdom\u2019 was his God, to whom he dedicated his choral-orchestral <em>Te Deum<\/em> \u2018for having brought me through so much suffering in Vienna\u2019. But one doesn\u2019t need to believe in a personal God to share St Augustine\u2019s intuition that \u2018There is one within me who is more myself than my self\u2019 \u2013 that sense many have that there\u2019s someone within us who knows better than our limited, \u2018rational\u2019 egos what we need to think and do.\u00a0<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Final chords of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 by the Vienna Philharmonic and Herbert Blomstedt\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U8U3ho-nlFk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The final chords of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony<\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bruckner… helping you find your way home<\/h2><p>And if that all sounds impossibly high-flown, think of Pooh and Piglet, lost in the fog at the top of the forest in<em> The House at Pooh Corner.<\/em> \u2018Do you know the way home?\u2019, asks Piglet anxiously. \u2018\u201cNo,\u201d said Pooh. \u201cBut there are 12 pots of honey in my cupboard, and they have been calling me for hours. I couldn\u2019t hear them properly before, because Rabbit would talk, but if nobody says anything except those 12 pots, I, Piglet, I shall know where they are calling from. Come on.\u201d\u2019<\/p><p>Don\u2019t let the fog and the unfamiliarity of everything scare you, Bruckner seems to say; be patient \u2013 wait for Rabbit to stop talking, and you too might hear that call and find your way home. That\u2019s what he said to me, in 1976, and has continued to say, at varying intervals, ever since. If he hasn\u2019t said that to you yet, then perhaps you\u2019ve never needed it, in which case I genuinely envy you. But don\u2019t dismiss him utterly \u2013 there may come a day when you need him too.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Thursday, 10 October 2024 at 09:00 AM Read on to discover why Bruckner’s works are either loved or hated by listeners… and how the music of this deeply troubled composer helped the author through a mental health crisis Bruckner… a deeply divisive composer There\u2019s a conversation I\u2019ve had regularly, with slight variations, throughout […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":48115,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"11"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/the-music-spoke-directly-to-my-loneliness-how-bruckner-helped-me-through-a-mental-health-crisis.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Thursday, 10 October 2024 at 09:00 AM Read on to discover why Bruckner’s works are either loved or hated by listeners… and how the music of this deeply troubled composer helped the author through a mental health crisis Bruckner… a deeply divisive composer There\u2019s a conversation I\u2019ve had regularly, with slight variations, throughout…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/48114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}